Which Sims game is the best?

"ClarionOfJoy;c-16386538" wrote:
The Sims 3 is my absolute favorite! When I first played the base game, I was absolutely amazed by the open world and the map was HUGE! I'm thinking: "Oh my GOSH! You mean, my sims can go anywhere on this huge map?!?? WITH NO LOADING SCREENS?!??" I love having my sims just jog around while I sit back and watch the beautiful scenery go by - seriously breathtaking! You can't do that in any of the other Sims iterations. Also love that you set the worlds at different historical settings such as the colonial (Barnacle Bay) or medieval times or even fantasy.

The rabbit holes took getting used to - but I realized they were the physical version of when sims go to work in Sims 1 and 2. Also I felt that they were really useful for when you have more than one sim in your household. For the time that they are working, you don't have to manage them and can focus on other members of your household. But with Zerbu's AMAZING Ultimate Careers mod, I can send my sims to work and actually control what they do at work! And we also have the Ambitions EP which added professions and self-employment. I didn't like that the restaurants were rabbit holes, but with premium content from the Sims 3 store, as well as mods, I was able to create restaurants that you see and control your sims in.

I also absolutely love most of the EPs! My favorite is the Island Paradise EP because it added beach and water activities I never thought were possible like scuba diving! It is my absolute favorite thing to do in The Sims 3! I learned to create diving lots (thanks to SimsVIP) so I've created them in almost all the worlds I've played. (Pro-Tip: If the water is too shallow, just use the terrain tools to deepen the lot to accommodate the taller objects such as large seaweed.) I also love the other water activities, snorkeling, wind-surfing, boating around, and water-skiing. A lot of people complained about the lag, but all it needs is to make some adjustments to the world, save the changes and just play a copy of the saved game. When I start a game of this world, I only load up Ambitions and Late Night along with this Island Paradise (and maybe one more EP for variety) and only store items/CC that I need for it - this way, it plays so smoothly with very little lag. I also love running and designing my own resort as well as discovering new islands! I love this world SO MUCH! I find this EP for me to be essential because I like having water activities in my other worlds (and the ability to run a hotel/BnB/resort in those worlds too!).

I love that I can customize the worlds any way I want. For example, when I first installed Riverview, I hated it! I thought it was so boring! But once I started making changes to it so it's the way I want, it has become one of my most favorite worlds. I even added a diving lot to it for my scuba diving addiction (am also thinking about adding more although they would have to be pretty small to fit in those rivers....). All the action seems to be centered on the center island. So I moved the art gallery somewhere else and put my house there. I love that the area is always bursting with town life - lots of sims hanging out at the bistro, or the bookstore, or the supermarket at the corner or the reading room! Very easy for my sims to just walk a few steps and meet new sims!

And because the worlds are so customizable, they can be fixed if needed. The the only problem with Isla Paradiso and Bridgeport that caused lagging were the routing issues and lot design. But once they are edited, those worlds work well with very little lag. The custom-made worlds by simmers are even better because their creators took the time to make sure they ran well with no routing issues or badly made lots.

I also like traits which do make the sims unique from each other. I also like the wants system and goals. I feel they are easier to achieve than the system in The Sims 2 and seem more intuitive.

The Sims 3 also has an unpredictable element to it. It's like the physical version of the chance cards in Sims 2. One time, one of my sims kids was running a bake sale in the park. Not enough people were coming by to purchase baked goods from her (I only found out later that there is a mod that brings more sims to the table) so using Twallan's Master Controller, I invited everyone who was free to come to the park in hopes some of them will go to her table and buy some of her baked goods. Out of the 30 or so sims that came, I was disappointed that only 3 came to her table, BUT another kid comes up to her and was really mean to her! I gave her some nice interactions hoping to smooth over the conflict but the jerky little kids actually gets into fight with her! I was plum! So my little sim, being a fairy cast a Hot Head trick on him to teach him a lesson - ONLY HE ENDED UP BEING SET ON FIRE! And he's standing next to a whole bunch of bushes, and they got set on fire too! So what happens? Pandemonium! All the 30 sims doing other stuff in the park besides buy baked goods from my sims came over and just stood there screaming and panicking! And because there were so many crowding in, some of THEM got set on fire too! Oh my GOSH! I wish I video captured it because it was hysterically funny and upsetting at the same time. My little girl caught fire as well, but if it weren't for Ma Bagley, she would have been turned into a sad little pile of ash just like the bully who beat her up and six innocent by-standers. The fireman and some sims with the brave trait came along and rescued everybody else, but it was the most surprising thing that ever happened! I had such a good laugh from it! So yeah, it is unpredictable and surprising a lot of times! It's never the same game even if you do over a saved game!

I also love the challenges people have come up with. I really love the zombie apocalypse challenges especially - SO MUCH FUN! Colonies are pretty fun too!

The Sims 2 comes in second place - I love the details that the devs put in: getting in and out of cars, going to restaurants meant having the maitre'd seat your sims, a waiter takes the orders, and a chef makes the food, running a business was more realistic and not simplified as it is in TS3 (and not much in TS4). Bon Voyage was my absolute favorite EP but Seasons was pretty great too!

The Sims 1 comes in at third place. It is still pretty amazing though for all the content it gave us and I just loved playing so much back then. Leveling up, getting married, and making money isn't as easy as it is in later iterations, but it was still doable and so much fun anyway. My favorite EPs were Making Magic and Superstar.

The Sims 4 is pretty bad and is a huge step backward. Even The Sims 1 is better it was so ground breaking for its time and the content was so creative and meaningful. Everything about The Sims 4 is so plum! I bought ALL the EPs for TS1, ALL the EPs and most SPs for TS2, and all the EPs, SPs, and most of the Sims 3 Store items (and still working to get all of it!) for TS3 even if I don't necessarily need them. Know why? It's because this is how I reward game companies who did an amazing job on a game that brings me so much joy - with my hard-earned money. If EA wants more money from me to fund development towards Sims 5, all they need to do is offer new content at the Sims 3 store - the only thing I ask is that the quality of the items be as great as previous content they sold in the store. I'm really unhappy with the stuff coming out for TS4 (like that ball pool for kids, really?!??).

For The Sims 5, EA really needs to hire more creative and inspired people for it - I saw how small the developing team is for TS4. The previous iterations had much larger teams who were truly inspired and motivated (especially with The Island Paradise EP - I love who ever came up with that - so much kudos to you!). TS4 seems more like a money grab as there is nothing amazing about the EPs/GPs/SPs at all. So PLEASE, for TS5, PLEASE let it be the lovely thoughtful details of TS2 with the open world, CASt and unpredictableness of TS3 with improved graphics and routing. I don't really like the art style of TS4 with the goofy looking cartoons so please make the graphics more like TS3 but with better skins for the sims (like Navetsea).

So yeah, The Sims 3 is my absolute favorite! So happy that it is still around and loved by so many people! I really hope The Sims 5 will be a progression from it - maybe even invite back the dev team who made it so wonderful to work or advise on it - not so much involvement from the number crunchers at EA. I heard that it was very difficult for the dev team to code but I want them to know that all that hard work and effort is dearly appreciated by me and that their hard work gave me and a lot of other simmers many, many hours of joy playing that game!